Searching for the spectral depolarization of ASKAP one-off FRB sources

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic transients of (sub-)millisecond duration that show wide-ranging spectral, temporal, and polarimetric properties. The polarimetric analysis of FRBs can be used to probe intervening media, study the emission mechanism, and test possible progenitor models. In particular, low-frequency depolarization of FRBs can identify dense, turbulent, magnetized, ionized plasma thought to be near the FRB progenitor. An ensemble of repeating FRBs has shown low-frequency depolarization. The depolarization is quantified by the parameter $\sigma _{\rm RM}\,$, which correlates with proxies for both the turbulence and mean magnetic field strength of the putative plasma. However, while many non-repeating FRBs show comparable scattering (and hence inferred turbulence) to repeating FRBs, it is unclear whether their surrounding environments are comparable to those of repeating FRBs. To test this, we analyse the spectro-polarimetric properties of five one-off FRBs and one repeating FRB, detected and localized by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder. We search for evidence of depolarization due to $\sigma _{\rm RM}\,$ and consider models where the depolarization is intrinsic to the source. We find no evidence (for or against) the sample showing spectral depolarization. Under the assumption that FRBs have multipath propagation-induced depolarization, the correlation between our constraint on $\sigma _{\rm RM}\,$ and RM is consistent with repeating FRBs only if the values of $\sigma _{\rm RM}\,$ are much smaller than our upper limits. Additionally, the correlation between the constraints on $\sigma _{\rm RM}\,$ and τs is inconsistent with repeating FRBs. The observations provide further evidence for differences in the typical environments and sources of one-off and repeating FRBs.